What Is A Business VPN?

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February 15, 2023 Business

With remote work becoming the norm, more and more companies are looking into business VPN services.

After all, they’re a perfect fit for organizations with multiple offices that need safe access to their internal resources.

Such solutions may sound a bit intimidating at first. But luckily, we’re here to answer all your questions.

Let’s explore the ins and outs of business VPNs.

What is a Business VPN?

A business or corporate VPN is a type of Virtual Private Network designed specifically for professional organizations.

This cybersecurity tool protects corporate networks and lets businesses safely connect their remote workers to necessary tools and resources.

It also allows companies with multiple office locations to create a shared internal network.

Basically, a business VPN serves as a middleman between an organization’s employees and apps.

Since it’s encrypted end-to-end, only employees connected to the VPN’s servers can access the internal network.

That means there will be no data leaks or on-path attacks.

And considering the fact that 45% of US businesses have suffered a data breach in the past 12 months, corporate VPNs are more needed than ever.

Business VPN benefits

Evidently, company VPN services have many security benefits. They’re much more robust than traditional perimeter security models.

Let’s take a closer look at all the advantages:

Access control — Your business VPN will be in charge of user authentication and identification. Only authorized users can gain access to company resources.
Traffic encryption — High encryption standards like AES-256 will scramble your data and make it unreadable to prying eyes.
Secure access to corporate network and files — A company VPN solution will connect your corporate network and external devices in different geographical locations.
Remote workforce protection — Remote workers can safely access their workspace even in potentially risky environments like public WiFi hotspots.
Secure connection endpoints — All devices connected to your internal network will be protected against data breaches.
Monitor product performance — By connecting to servers across the globe, you can analyze market viability.
Split tunneling — This handy feature lets you split your traffic and apps into those you want to encrypt, and those with direct access to the internet.
Cost-effective solution — A business VPN is simpler and cheaper than buying a secure “leased line” from an ISP or whitelisting the IP addresses of all remote workers.

How does a business VPN work?

Usually, professional organizations rely on a perimeter security model for their internal networks.

It directly aligns the network to the organization’s physical structure, which greatly simplifies network management.

However, it’s not a viable solution for branch offices and remote workers outside of that perimeter.

That’s where a business VPN comes into play!

It allows corporations to transition to public cloud or hybrid cloud environments using encryption-based internet security protocols.

In doing so, it creates virtual tunneled connections that act as an intermediary between network resources and external devices.

IPsec is the most common protocol for enterprise VPN solutions.

In order to form the tunnel, the IPsec protocol cooperates with the IKE management protocol and creates a communication channel between network resources, users, and devices.

During this process, they mutually negotiate security associations and exchange keys for end-to-end encryption.

Types of Business VPNs

Generally speaking, there are two corporate VPN connection types:

Remote access VPN for the remote workforce
Site-to-site VPN for branch offices.

As you can see, they’re employed in different situations, but that’s not the only thing that separates them.

Here’s a quick overview of their characteristics:

Remote access business VPN

A remote access VPN connects individual users to a company’s internal data center.

It’s also a temporary connection — it’s only there when the VPN is active.

Whenever remote users turn on their VPN clients, they establish a secure tunnel to their Network Access Server (NAS), which is linked to the internal network.

Unfortunately, this VPN type has some limitations. Depending on the distance from the data hub, latency issues and networking problems can occur.

Site-to-site business VPN

A site-to-site VPN is a permanent link between two or more offices or sites. Usually, it’s set up as an IPsec network connection.

It’s designed for corporations that are spread across different geographic locations.

Unlike remote access VPNs, the VPN client is hosted on each site’s local network. Users don’t need to have individual permissions to connect to the VPN.

However, once they leave the office, they lose access to the network.

The difference between personal and business VPNs

Business and consumer VPNs operate very similarly. Both encase your traffic in an encrypted tunnel.

So, the main difference lies in their use cases.

Simply put, a personal VPN is intended for personal, individual use. It’s meant to protect the user’s anonymity and privacy while browsing on untrusted networks.

Company VPN solutions work on a larger scale. They’re designed for professional environments where remote employees need access to a company’s resources.

There are also some additional factors that set them apart:

Number of users — Consumer VPNs are limited to one user and their owned devices. By contrast, a business VPN can have multiple users.
Account management and user permissions — With a personal VPN, the individual user is completely in charge of their account. On the other hand, business VPNs only allow the account manager to make decisions. That includes adding or removing devices, changing the global settings, setting up permission levels, and monitoring user activities.
IP address and servers — Consumer VPNs have a large pool of servers. Their IP addresses are shared between users and are usually dynamic. Meanwhile, a corporate VPN will grant you a static, dedicated IP and a private server.
Pricing — Personal VPNs are overall more affordable since they’re oriented toward single users. Company VPNs are scaled accordingly for businesses of all sizes.
Maintenance — Consumer VPNs are generally novice-friendly. As long as you keep them updated, everything should work smoothly. On the other hand, business VPNs are more difficult to set up and require an expert to maintain.